Hershey park & Knoebels (one photo)

Time for a TR of my 2 day trip to Pennsylvania

We started on the 17th me and my friends Greg and Frank. We arrived at Hershey park 2hrs ahead of schedule, we were the 5th car in the parking lot (no joke). Once the park opened since I haven't ridden a coaster in a while I insisted we started with an entry level coaster, so first we rode Wildcat, my first wooden twister, and my first exposure to Millennium Flyer Trains. Greg and I rode 4th row back, and Frank rode back row. There's not much else to report on Wildcat.

Next was Fahrenheit, I had no idea what to expect from this coaster, all I had to rest on were the previous Intamins i've ridden knowing they've been rough and unpleasant to ride. We got on line for a 30min wait, i'm surprised even with those small trains the line really never stopped moving. When we got to the station me and Greg rode second row, and Frank third. My previous experiences on intamins need not apply to this ride, it was glass smooth, and incredibly forceful, easily replaced El Toro as my #1 coaster.

After Fahrenheit we rode Lightning Racer, 2 notes for this ride, #1 I have been waiting to ride this coaster for years, after watching videos, and looking at pictures it was surreal to finally be able to ride it (and both sides did not disappoint) #2 we had big plans for the on ride photo. frank 2 days earlier set up a rig of card and we decided to play poker on the ride (pictured below)(i'm greay shirt front right, Greg is second row, Frank is front left)



After both sides of Lightning Racer we went for Storm Runner. This was another ride similar to Lightning Racer, i've been waiting for years to ride it, the wait was short, we got onto the steps into the station and it broke, we waited but once they pushed the train back into the station we left for Great Bear.

Great Bear was the longest wait of the day, but it was completely worth it, Frank is big, so we had to ride 5th row. I had preconceptions of this ride, after reading that it was boring, and forceless I didn't expect much, which mean I was shocked when it turned out to be amazing. After Great Bear we ate, shared a biog thing of boardwalk fries.

SooperDooperLooper came next, my first Schwartzkopt coaster, and again I was not disappointed at all, it was faster than expected, more forceful than expected, and just a lot more fun that I expected. After SooperDooperLooper the lines were getting long, we were getting tired, so we headed for the last essetial coaster for the day: Storm Runner.

This coaster not only met my expectations it again it exceeded (it seems to be a reoccurring theme in this park). Being used to the Top hat on Ka where it slows down a lot on the top I expected the same on Storm Runner, got nothing like it, insane airtime, and that Flying Snake dive, DAMN!. The good news is after the ride.....I didn't have to pee anymore.

After the park we went to chocolate world, went on the tour and shopped around a bit, then headed out for the hotel a Hampton Inn in Danville, we chose that because it was only 14mins from Knoebels.

Hope you enjoyed my long TR for a day in Hershey, overall I liked the park, and loved the coasters....I just hated the layout, it seemed like they just throw any rides they can in the middle of a walk way.

Stick around tomorrow for Knoebels because I dont feel like typing anymore.

Dude....that picture....I totally had EXACTLY the same idea last time I was at Cedar Point. But you beat me to actually making it happen [:(]
But overall it sounds like you had a good day at HP! I am surprised you liked Storm Runner so much, though. To be perfectly honest I hated it the one time I rode it.

Time for Knoebels

Now I had no idea what to expect with knoebels, all I knew is it had Phoenix a world class wooden coaster. We left our hotel at about 10:00 it was 30min drive from the hotel to Knoebels, when we got there we immediately went to Phoenix and bought a $10 ticket book. We first rode Phoenix front row and I loved it.

The first thing I noticed about knoebels are the loading times, they're insanely fast, even only running one train on Phoenix we were on in less than 5mins, front row even! After Phoenix we rode Fandango the Moser Frisbee. After Fandango was Twister. I loved the lift on Twister, and the layout wasnt bad either, it was just really bumpy, not rough but bumpy. We rode front row on Twister.

After twister we went for Looper, which was right next to Flying turns, let me just say Flying Turns is one of the best looking rides i've ever seen, not layout wise, but just track wise, it looks fantastic and fit in perfectly for the park. Once it opens i'm making the trip again for it. Looper was great fun, for a couple minutes, once we were in the car we began rocking and nearly got upside down before the ride started. On the ride once they let us use the pedal though, god we must've flipped 20 times in a row.

After looper we got lost, in a small park like Knoebels! we were looking for the brass ring carousel, once we found it though we got on line and headed for the outer seats, being a rookie at grabbing the rings I got 8, none of them were brass, Greg got 8 as well, and Frank got 12, none of us got and brass rings so we broke for lunch.

Once lunch was over we went for another round on the coasters, starting with Phoenix, for the second ride the wait was longer but still pretty short given the load times. We grabbed the last row on the 3rd car, still amazing airtime, and might I add that for it's age Phoenix is still pretty smooth.

Then we went for a second round on Twister in the back row, this one hurt, my legs were digging into side bars of the restraint, but I still had a great time on it.

Overall Knoebels was a fun park, but still pretty small, I can see them becoming much bigger especially with great rides like Phoenix and Twister. The food was excellent and so was the atmosphere, all the ride looks good as well as being fun, it all just fit in it was like stepping into a game of RCT2. '

Also if you ever go, try the white birch beer, it's amazing.

That was my 2 day trip to penn, we could've stopped at Dorney on the way home since we had the money and time, but we were all too fatigued, next year though we will be hitting dorney for sure.

Thank you for reading

Im surprized you liked Fahrenheit so much. I loved storm runner, but thought fahrenheit was very boring except for the drop...

No way, the drop was awesome, the Norwegian Loops was an amazing iversion, cobra rolls are pretty uneventful but the corkscrews seems different than usual, then the banked turn after the second corkscrew was awesome and the airtime hill gave some great airtime. Whats not to like?

I did like them, and the norweigian loop was cool and all, and actually had some airtime on the way out.

Idk if it had a quicker pace i think would have liked it alot more, but that out of control feeling i tend to like from intamin coasters like maverick and storm runner just wasnt there.. it could just be me.

Edit: Oh and it vibrated/shook sligtly the whole ride and that really destracted me from the ride for some reason..

I've been to Hershey and my favorite ride there was the Great Bear. Idk where you heard that GB was boring but it actually had good airtime and inversions. Storm Runner was fun but a little rough. Fahrenheit's scariest part was the lift, and then the inverts were fast and fun. Sooperdooperlooper is kind of dull to me now. Lighning Racer had excellent airtime, especially on the first drop. Wildcat was just fun in general. Overall I actually like King's Dominion better but Hershey is still awesome.

Hershey park has better rides but can get rather expensive and Knoebels also have great ride but i like the Hershey and If you are a thrill seeker I would suggest Hershey...

[TTD03]

^ I would agree.